So there’s this task, a really important task that the top managers want done “today”.
It’s a task that only takes about 30 minutes to do.
Instead of just letting me do the task, my boss sends his assistant into my work area to witness me do said task to make sure it gets done.
IDK. It kind of stuck in my craw. If my supervisor ask me to do something it always gets done. I don’t know why he felt the need to send in a witness.
Would this annoy you? Just curious.
Fuck yeah.
Absolutely. Go sit in your supervisor’s office for 30 minutes to make sure they are doing their job.
yep … having a (human) resource not doing anything for half an hour … is not exactly “operational excellence” …
I’d consider that more than a little insulting. “Hey, boss, if you really feel like I’m so unreliable that you have to waste this much of a second employee’s time to hover over me and babysit, should I take this as a hint that I should be looking for another job?”
I could almost understand if you were being expected to teach the other employee the task in question, but I don’t get the sense that applies here.
Agree exactly w @Seanette. That is f-ed up. Time to have a polite but firm heart to heart w boss. And if you don’t like the tone of the response, time to look for other work.
With a side order of …
People in management often compete mostly on their ability / willingness to overreact if the [whatever] request comes from far enough above them on the food chain. Such that maybe, just maybe, the goof watching you was simply performative throwaway garbage by your boss for the benefit of their grand- or great-grand-boss. They knew it was BS but they forgot to tell you, or assumed you’d figure it out;
If that sounds reasonable, you can cut them some slack if you want.
IOW They weren’t distrusting you. They were putting on a show of overreaction to impress their higher-ups. Who, by and large, are even stupider and more ego-driven the higher up they are. And as a result, lurves them some over-reaction as long as it’s in response to their whims disguised as business needs.
Bottom line: It’s dumb and dumber upwards, so what you see is your manager doing something that looks dumb from your POV. That’s natural.
My bottom line:
Your call. But this issue may have roots far beyond the simplistic “does my direct manager trust me to do my job today” that you implicitly are assuming.
This was my immediate assumption: Boss is insecure about the fact that only you know how to do the task, and wants assistant to be able to do it in a pinch. Does that apply here? Or is there already someone else who knows how to do it?
Other possibilities:
Obvs #4 is the preference, but only you can read the situation.
And yes, I would have found it offensive. I might have even refused to be watched while I worked. “Thanks, but having someone look over my shoulder will only make the task harder.” Not recommending that approach my any means; just saying it’s the sort of thing I might do.
The more they flex their authority, the more they show their insecurity. And that’s why it’s dangerous to make an issue out of it
No, I work in manufacturing.
They needed some product processed for a very important customer that was time sensitive.
To be fair it WAS an important task. And I get the pressure they are feeling. I’m just offended they didn’t trust me to get it done with out a babysitter.
But yeah there are plenty of people who could have got it done I just happened to be the one on shift at the time.
A lot depends on your relationship with this boss, and your expectations re: your work. If you have any sort of a mutually respectful relationship, and if you wish for some advancement/raise/whatever, I could imagine saying, “Look, I was happy to do that job. You should know when I’m assigned a task like that I’ll do it and don’t need your assistant watching over me.”
OTOH, if you are just one of many peons, and all you get from the job is a paycheck - who cares. You did your job and will get your paycheck. For whatever reason, your boss wanted to piss away 30 minutes of his gofer’s time.
Long ago my job beat my ability to be annoyed out of me. If I got annoyed by all the irritating and insulting crap that came down, I wouldn’t have the mental space for anything else.
As presented in the OP, it sounds pretty crappy on the boss’s part. But we may not have all the information, and the OP themself may not have all the information. How is it known exactly what the assistant’s purpose was in observing the task? Did the boss tell the OP? Did the assistant tell the OP? If so, did the assistant report it correctly? As noted by TruCelt, there are various explanations for the incident, some less crappy than others. Most of TruCelt’s suggestions (apart from #3 and maybe #5) seem pretty reasonable and nothing to get upset about. Maybe the boss told the assistant, “let me know the instant that Grrr finishes this so I can report that it’s done” and the assistant clumsily told Grrr that their task was to “watch you and make sure it gets done”, there’s nothing too terrible except a miscommunication.
I actually think #5 may be the most likely answer. Sometimes keeping an assistant busy is a task in itself.
That’s what I love about my job. 90% of it involves critiquing inept management at big corporations.
Of course, what I hate about my job is when they continue to do things their way and get mad when the project fails in exactly the way I warned them it would.
But I digress.
I guess my question if I were in the OPs shoes is what purpose does the assistance serve in this particular exercise? @TruCelt mentioned some scenarios that seem reasonable. But assuming that the assistant is not in any position to actually evaluate or assist in the work you are doing and also assuming that most managers are not playing 4D Chess with their people in some elaborate maneuvering beyond the obvious, that really only leaves one scenario in my mind. The Boss wants someone hovering over you to make sure you are working on this high priority task without any interruptions or distractions.
I suppose how annoyed I’d be depends on whether I thought the Boss was doing this because they didn’t trust my time management skills or simply because it was urgent,
OP should now double-charge for his hours for doing the work and babysitting himself.
If the manager had a valid reason for the babysitter like his boss’s boss demanded it, then they should have told the OP. If not, then that’s the offense.
Boss is covering his own ass. For sure.
Maybe he’s not doing his job.
I have to agree with you. In my experience, if there is an important customer meeting and we need to show a product we promised, that’s very high priority and has a schedule set by the customer, not by us. As a boss, I always had three types (very roughly) of employees that could be assigned to the task.
People who I could trust implicitly, and more important knew how they worked. They were employees I’d been “in the trenches” with and I knew would 1) understand my instructions, 2) Make the task a priority and accomplish the task on the schedule I needed, and 3) produce something that would meet or exceed customer expectations (which may be different from simply complete and functional)
People who could perform the task, but I didn’t have a firm grasp on their ability to fully understand what I expected, or their level of competence, or their ability to perform on schedule, or their ability to produce what we needed to impress the customer.
People who I knew from experience did not have all the qualities needed to successfully accomplish a critical task. Inability to manage their time, or maybe general incompetence, or simple oppositional behavior when confronted with detailed instructions.
If type 1 wasn’t available, I could see assigning someone to make sure that absolutely nothing went wrong, or at least could be counted on to recognize and call me as soon as something started to go off the rails. And with type 2, it isn’t a judgement against them, its just belt and suspenders.
Question: I assume that you and the boss’s assistant spoke to each other when he suddenly walked into your work area. What was the tone of the conversation?
Was it friendly, or was it confrontational?
Was it:
“Hi Grr! What’s up? That idiot boss told me to double check the accuracy of these engine parts you are drilling, because they’re really important. Sorry to bug you. Obviously I cant run your drilling machine for you, but at least I can help you stack them on the cart and save you the hassle of pushing it over to the shipping department.”
Or was it: “the boss needs these parts RIGHT NOW! Dont screw up…I need to put them on the truck by 1:30, so you’d better work fast.”
Shit yeah! Do the effing task they asked you to do while in their office. Just say you dont trust the assistant - that might send the right message.
Yes, it would piss me off. It would have pissed me off less if it were my boss sitting there, because this was his first property and he was too anxious to do anyone else until he know this was done. But sending his assistant?
How well do you know this manager? What kind of relationship do you have?
Actually me and my supervisor get along pretty well.
He advocated for me getting a higher annual review than I actually got. (They only allow one “exceeds expectations” per year. Which in itself messed up)
Which is why I was so surprised. I know he likes me.just don’t know why he sent in the babysitter.
I assume it’s pressure.but still, it’s annoying.